Lionel Messi Maradona Imitation

You'd have to say Lionel Messi is the new Diego Maradona. The comparisons can end now. Messi is better than Diego Maradona. Yes, it's true. Here's Messi's imitation of Maradona's legendary '86 World Cup goal.

Lionel Messi embarrases Getafe as he dribbles through them with ease and scores a wonderful goal just like Maradona did to England in the World Cup.

Barcelona's Messi really is quite a special player and so young. Is it time to call him the best soccer player to ever play the game? I think so. I also love Eidur Gudjohnsen's reaction after Messi scores. See him in the lower left hand corner of the video below: hands on head in disbelief at just what Messi is able to do on the soccer field.

In 1987, a year and two days after Argentina's Diego Maradona scored what would later be voted as the best goal in World Cup history, Lionel Messi was born. The Barcelona striker and fellow Argentine has been named by Maradona as his successor, and on Wednesday, two months shy of his 20th birthday, Mr. Messi paid homage. His goal for Barcelona in the semifinals of the Spanish Cup against Getafe was an astonishing bit of mimicry, hewing closely to the lofty standard set by Maradona as he scored the quarterfinal's clincher en route to a World Cup triumph.

"The two players, both left-footed, short, stocky and deceptively quick, traced virtually the same course across two of the world's most emblematic football fields -- Maradona at Mexico City's Aztec Stadium, Messi at Barcelona's Nou Camp," Sid Lowe writes in the Daily Telegraph. After pausing to note that, yes, the Spanish Cup is a far cry from the World Cup, Mr. Lowe adds, "Both men ran for just over 10 seconds, Maradona covering 62 metres, Messi 60, both touched the ball 13 times and beat six rivals, dashing past five of them and shooting home past the sixth."

The Times of London remarks, "Twenty-one years on, the similarity of the scintillating slalom, the replica brilliance and balance, was remarkable."

No wonder all four of Spain's major sports daily newspapers (too bad the U.S. no longer has one of these) headlined the feat, "Messi scores Maradona's goal."

The Daily Telegraph asks fans to comment on which goal was better. Not surprisingly, several commenters on the British newspaper's online forum say neither can top a memorable 1999 goal by Ryan Giggs for Manchester United. Read more...